BAAC AGM and Parkway Mile

Hi everyone,

Here's a reminder of one of the most important evenings in the club's
calendar, Wednesday 8th June. Come and enjoy the competition of the
Parkway Mile at 1800, or simply join us for the AGM at 2000. The outgoing
committee will let you know about our successes during the past year, and our
plans for the future.

Do you want to be part of it? There are opportunities to join the
committee for 2016/17. Let me know if you are interested. New blood
is always welcome and you can have a "without portfolio role" should you wish!

Green Belt Relay 2016 - Results

The eleven strong BAAC team set off on Saturday morning to circumnavigate
London through a series of twenty two stages competing against 39 other teams
and with the aim of recapturing the Corporate Trophy. Next week's digest
will include the story of the event but as a teaser here are the results and let
it be known that we played the second half with only ten players yet we managed
to win back the trophy and we haven't yet sacked the team manager!

The British Airways Athletics Club team finished in twenty third place
amongst the forty teams, recording a running time of 29 hours and 45 minutes.
We were seven hours behind the first finishing team (Serpentine Running Club
Men) though five hours ahead of the last (Pembroke Athletica). The best
performance by a club member was sadly not in a BA Club vest - Natalie Ruffell
running for her first claim club was first lady in leg 6 (Chipperfield to St.
Albans) in 58:48, eleventh overall in that leg (and for comparison purposes she
finished just seven seconds behind Danny "parkrun" Norman and 52 seconds ahead
of Richard "proud dad" Ruffell). Natalie was also seen to finish leg 21 as first
lady but this has not been confirmed in the results. Paul Knechtl probably
had the best performance in a BA Vest finishing in fifth place in leg 7.

But the digest next week may reveal a different story.

Roderick Hoffman

Club parkrun results for Saturday 21st May 2016

21st May

family & friends

time

parkrun

commentary

grade

Paul

Watt

25:16

Banstead Woods

club course record

59%

Janice

Jones

27:50

Banstead Woods

run #31

60%

Julie

Barclay

27:51

Banstead Woods

run #71

62%

Vera

Simms

28:35

Banstead Woods

run #27

63%

Gary

Rushmer

19:50

Bedfont Lakes

M-2, run #58

77%

Scott

Davison

22:14

Bedfont Lakes

run #163

63%

Chris

Evans

23:34

Bedfont Lakes

run #145

63%

Ian

Cockram

24:48

Bedfont Lakes

run #348, 221st at Bedfont

59%

John

Lennon

29:07

Bedfont Lakes

run #208

53%

David

Duggan

29:52

Bedfont Lakes

run #148

52%

Caroline

Cockram

44:02

Bedfont Lakes

run #227

37%

Sarah

Gordon

35:56

Belton House

first run at Belton House

53%

Eddie

Giles

26:24

Black Park

run #69

65%

Joe

Nolan

26:59

Black Park

run #268

60%

Janet

Smith

32:34

Black Park

run #50

52%

Jonathan

Cox

21:14

Bushy Park

run#274

72%

Ian

Cunningham

23:31

Bushy Park

run #244

64%

Christopher

Chamberlain

21:48

Cardiff

run #62, 57th at Cardiff

59%

Ben

Chaytow

21:54

Crane Park

run #132, 110th at Crane Pk

62%

Daniela

Mayerova

28:58

Elagin Ostrov

First club run in Russia. F-4

51%

Helen

Smith

30:09

Guildford

first parkrun since January

63%

Kerstin

Luksch

20:08

Gunnersbury

F-3, run #185

75%

Alan

Anderson

33:37

Gunnersbury

run #411

64%

Petra

Otto

31:42

Harrow

run #12, 2nd at Harrow

63%

Joan

Foxley

35:02

Harrow

run #31

61%

Steve

Newell

36:45

Lullingstone

park #73

49%

Alice

Banks

25:35

Maidenhead

run #57

74%

Benita

Scaife

30:03

Maidenhead

65%

Emily

Warburton-Brown

27:36

Peckham Rye

run #16

54%

Steve

Dodsworth

23:31

Sunderland

course pb, club course record

64%

Linda

Dodsworth

25:49

Sunderland

parkrun pb

61%

Sreeram

Sethuraman

27:14

Upton Court

best time of 2016

49%

Kevin

Holland

30:21

Woking

run #49

57%

Tony

Barnwell

34:01

Wycombe Rye

run #106, 4th at Wycombe

55%

Alastair

Heslop

volunteer

Guildford

barcode scanning

Roderick

Hoffman

volunteer

Northala Fields

finish token support

John

Scaife

volunteer

Maidenhead

From a statistical point of view, in the 10+ years of parkrun it is not very
often that we have two "Miss Smiths" making the headlines in the same week.

Janet Smith (32:34) loves to throw her weight about at track and field
meetings but has found a renewed enthusiasm for running of late. She was
an early adopter of parkrun (Bushy Park Time Trial even) on Armistice Day in
2006 with a four figure barcode (#2341). So after nearly ten years it is
lovely to report that with the support of Track & Field captain Eddie Giles
(26:24) and pacing guru Joe Nolan (26:59) she celebrated her 50th run at Black
Park on Saturday.

Helen Smith (30:02) (barcode #4702) made her parkrun debut at Bushy Park in
2007, a full 8 weeks before Alan Anderson got started. What a difference a
decade makes. This week at Guildford, under the watchful eye of regular
volunteer and very very occasional runner Alastair Heslop, Helen ran her 22nd
parkrun and we applaud her persistence also. Alan Anderson (33:37) was at
his more recently adopted home run at Gunnersbury Park and is now on 411.

Linda Dodsworth (25:49) beat her previous parkrun pb by 25 seconds at Sunderland where
Steve Dodsworth (23:31) set a new club course record. They travel a bit and
run regularly and will be at Reigate Priory parkrun and the Westminster Mile
next weekend and would welcome the opportunity to meet up with some of the
southern BA crowd.

Paul Watt (25:16) survived a significant birthday celebration for Julie
Barclay's sister Janice Jones (27:50) at Banstead Woods to set a new club course
record. Gary Rushmer (19:50) was second finisher at Bedfont Lakes where we
once again had a big turnout of members.

Daniela Mayerova (28:58) added a new country to our map with a run at Elagin
Ostrov in St Petersburg (Russia). Sarah Gordon (35:56) added another run to
her long list (63) at Belton House in Nottinghamshire.

I'm putting out an appeal for information this week regarding Christopher
Chamberlain (21:48) who is claiming affiliation with our club and runs regularly
at Cardiff and occasionally at Upton Court. If any of his friends are
reading this could they please ask him to get in touch with our membership
secretary.

Petra adds that the previous week she had run the
Peterborough parkrun - "I went to the Peterborough Parkrun, for the first time:
http://www.parkrun.org.uk/peterborough/
It’s a very fast and flat course, with 519 runners on that day. Well worth a
visit if any BA runner was looking for a ‘PB-course’. "

And Roderick points out that it might not show it in the table above but club
numbers were down due to us having a full team for the Green Belt Relay - he was
the only one able to combine the two by taking on the aptly named "token
support" role at Northala before joining the GBR team.

parkrun Tourism and Growth

For the fourth time this year I have lost my 100% French parkrun record!
There are now five parkruns in France with the fifth being at "Château de Pierre
de Bresse" which takes over from "Burnham and Highbridge" and "Southwick
Country Park" as having the longest name for a parkrun. The nearest BA airports
are Geneva or Lyon both over 100km away. Meanwhile parkrun de la Ramee
featured on French TV during the week so for anyone wanting to practice their
French you can follow this link:
http://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/midi-pyrenees/emissions/jt-1920-midi-pyrenees
(parkrun is 14min:10secs in).

Roderick Hoffman

Snowdonia half marathon - 22 May 2016

SNOWDONIA …advertised as THE UK’s TOUGHEST HALF MARATHON

“A scenic but tough Half Marathon set in the beautiful Snowdonia National
Park, North Wales, starting and finishing in the village of Llanrwst which
played host to the World Trail Running Championships in 2013. The park is a
region of haunting beauty and grandeur, of wild rocky mountains, hidden valleys,
cascading rivers, still glacial lakes and deep forests”

It certainly was a toughie yesterday, as hard as a full marathon anywhere
else but clambered round in 2h:13m....fantastic scenery, long journey there &
back though !

Joe Nolan

Joe has perhaps forgotten that in last year's Green Belt Relay Chris Kelly
had fitted in a drive to and back from Anglesey in between his two lengthy legs
(though I don't think either of those legs featured climbing a mountain).